Here's 3 from after the storms from hurricane Ike, and 2 from a week after the ice storm that got the Midwest this year. The 3 from Ike are of streams that are usually dry. The other two: I couldn't resist the bent tree. No telling what laid on it to deform it over how many years. The last reminded me of a line from the Moody Blues, "As new life will come from death,".

__________________All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Well your bent tree has either been lopped off just above a side branch that's bent up and taken over the trunk role; or it has suffered a very bad break to its trunk which has set at 90 degrees and then bent up to resume its trunk role.

Ask AnnMarie; she's studied arboriculture.

__________________"Truth is stranger than fiction: fiction has to make sense." Leo Rosten.

"When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." C. S. Lewis

"I find television very educational. Whenever somebody switches it on I go in the other room and read a book." (attributed to Groucho Marx)

Well your bent tree has either been lopped off just above a side branch that's bent up and taken over the trunk role; or it has suffered a very bad break to its trunk which has set at 90 degrees and then bent up to resume its trunk role.

Ask AnnMarie; she's studied arboriculture.

I think that when they were logging, they dropped a tree top on it. It somehow survived and the thing that was on top of it was either removed or rotted away. The result is what you see today. Here's another view; it shows that the top is misformed, too. I really like the tree.

__________________All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

I very much ike the first and third but would play with them to get them more balanced in exposure and colour (depth). Number two is a littel too cluttered but still a very nice picture.

The last one is great too, the elevated trunk brings some tension in the picture a regular, lying trunk wouldn't. Good eye!

I think the third picture is my favourite, especially because of the lighting and the "magical" quality of the water and there's a correct measure of blur to suggest movement of the water, something people with the full automatic camera's of today lose because their picture always has "correct" settings and thats usually too fast a shutter speed in these cases

__________________Hans, also known as Elrhan, Master Archivist

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Thanks Hans. Believe it or not, I did play with the brightness and contrast on all these. On the first set (After Ike), it was a partly cloudy day. The sun didn't decide to make an appearance until after I had moved on through the woods away from the site of the first shot. I felt that if I got more depth to the shot, it darkened up the foreground a bit too much. I guess I should try selectively burning in the light areas. It's something I've never done, but it's not like I'd be wasting print paper.

That last shot is like I said. "As new life shall come from death". That raised trunk is sheltering the sapling, and will shape it in the future. I hope I can remember to include shots of the scene over the years to come.

__________________All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

P'ter is right with his first guess about what caused that deformity... the original trunk was cut, infected, or broken, and a lateral branch began receiving the root nutrients, thus making IT the trunk.

P'ter is right with his first guess about what caused that deformity... the original trunk was cut, infected, or broken, and a lateral branch began receiving the root nutrients, thus making IT the trunk.

Look closer. That's not a lateral branch, that's the deformed trunk. Hard to see in the two pics, I know.

We had timber cut about 12 or so years ago. Back then, that tree was a small sapling, and some part of a tree that was cut down must have fallen on it. It survived, and grew out and around the obstruction, which has rotted away. The upper "bent" section might be a lateral branch; I'd have to hike across the hill onto the back 40 and take another look to be sure. When I do, I'll take more pics.

Pine around here grow quite quickly if they have enough light. That area is open and well lit, comparatively. They also rot away quickly if on the ground. That area is soft ground, right next to the creek in the first pic, upstream from the first pic. Quite damp if there's any moisture at all.

Just my suppositions, based on knowing the history of the land.

__________________All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.